Book culling

[chrishansenhome]

I'm certain that most of my readers are, like me, book collectors. I had 40 cases of books when I moved in here, and I'm certain that there are at least 10 more cases here now.

One thing I've realised while culling is that many of my cookbooks are now outmoded. I can find whatever recipes I want on the Intarwebz. There are some that I want to keep for sentimental reasons (The Two Fat Ladies cookbook is one of those), some I want to keep because I like the chef (Ken Hom is SO cute! Craig Claiborne told a great story and The New York Times Cookbook is a classic), some because they are priceless (Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Mrs. Beeton's), and some because they are quaint (I have one cookbook about railroad food in the US, with recipes, and that one is quaint enough to keep). All the other ones probably need to go into the jumble sale at church.

Often people who see my book collection say, "You've read all of those? Why don't you just discard the ones you've read?" Well, when J.D. Salinger kicked the bucket a few weeks ago, HWMBO was intrigued and wanted to read The Catcher in the Rye. I had to search a bit as he'd hidden it behind some other books, but I found it and he's reading it now. It's so old that the covers (paperback) fell off as he read it.

Comments

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

first, catch your hare

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

Don't eat rabbits in this household; HWMBO thinks bunnies are cute and I had it years ago and it tastes like chicken, so why not just eat chicken?

[hickbear.livejournal.com]

Oh my, I understand. In our house in Atlanta, we had 9 store-bought bookcases, and 5 more built-in bookcases, all of them filled-n-packed with books. We paid to have all of the books moved from Atlanta to storage, then from storage to Nashville. Whilst in Tennessee, we pared and culled and Got Ruthless, because we were tired of paying to pack and move and store Eleventeen Bazillion books.

Oh, and this was after The Great Cookbook Purge before we left Atlanta. One Xmas many moons ago, I asked my in-laws for a copy of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. The concept "Mike wants cookbooks" got stuck in my mother-in-law's mind. My mother-in-law who is an absolute whiz at yard sales.

I kept 3 of the 8 (!!!) copies of said BH&G cookbook that she'd procured and given me over the years, as well as the two Two Fat Ladies cookbooks that the Food Network published in the U.S. that Bryon gave me for our anniversary one year and a copy of my parents' church cookbook that my mother gave me for my 40th birthday. The other 100-plus cookbooks, most of which I received from my in-laws on each and every gift-giving occasion over the course of several years? I hope Goodwill appreciated them.

what fresh (culinary) hell is this?

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

.
I'm not sure you could get these in a recipe book, but who knows.

(ganked from FB) did you see this?

the nine worst prepared foods. they include cheeseburger in a tin, and the pancake answer to spray cheez.

aaaaaiiieeeeeee!